


Mrc and Esc: Paint the Walls

by demon_rum



Series: Mrc and Esc [4]
Category: Eagle of the Ninth Series - Rosemary Sutcliff, The Eagle | Eagle of the Ninth (2011)
Genre: Cavemen, Crack, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-12
Updated: 2012-01-12
Packaged: 2017-10-31 14:08:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/344880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demon_rum/pseuds/demon_rum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The adventures of Mrc and Esc, part 4. Esc is very sad; Mrc tries to cheer him up. Chronologically, this is set before Sling, Spear, Club.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mrc and Esc: Paint the Walls

Mrc is scared.

Esc does not want to do things. He does not want to hunt, he does not want to eat, he does not want to rut. All Esc wants to do is lie on the ground and stare at the walls of the cave. He has been like this for days now. Mrc does not know what to do.

 

He cooked Esc cow, the food that Esc likes to eat best. But Esc just chewed some and then lay back down. He tried to rut Esc with his mouth, but Esc sighed and said “No, Mrc. I am too sad to rut right now.” He told Esc that there were ducks in the sky, and there were fish in the lake. Esc said “I do not care.” He wore his best skins, the ones with the spots, and the string with bones that Esc had made for him. Then he went and stood next to Esc, and said “Look at me, Esc! I look good!” But Esc just looked up and said “Yes, you look good, Mrc,” and put his head back down on the dirt.

So Mrc is scared. He does not know what to do. When will Esc be glad again, and go hunt and eat and rut and swim and shout at Cat and look at the stars with Mrc? Is Esc sick or hurt, and does not want to tell Mrc? Is Esc bored with Mrc, and does he want Mrc to go and find a new cave, a cave that does not have Esc in it?

Then Mrc has a thought. Ground is good to sleep on, or to rut on, but it does not feel good to lay on it all day long. He will trick Esc, so Esc will stand up, and when he does he will start to feel good again, and then Esc will be glad, and will hunt and rut and swim and look at the stars.

He runs up next to Esc and shakes him on the arm. "Esc, Esc, wake up! You must get up now! Quick—there is a mammoth by the mouth of the cave!"  
  
But Esc just lays on the ground, on his side, with his eyes on the dirt.  
  
"Quick, Esc, you must get up. Now the mammoth is in the cave!" Mrc tugs on Esc's arm, but Esc lets his arm fall back down. It lays there limp and still, like Esc.  
  
"It is a big mammoth, Esc, and he will step on us both! We must run. Here he comes! Aaaaiiii!" Mrc falls to the ground and hides his head in his arms. He falls next to Esc, who lifts his head up to look. He turns his head once, looks at the cave, and then lays it back down.  
  
"There is no mammoth, Mrc. I do not see one. We will not be stepped on.” Esc's voice is so soft, and so sad, that Mrc is scared now, _very_ scared. His plan did not work. It was not smart. And Esc did not get up, not for the mammoth. Not for Mrc. Not at all.

Mrc walked to the end of the cave. He had to think, and he thought best when he was out in the fresh air. At the end of the cave, he turned back. “Esc, I am going for a walk. But I will be back.” He watched. He hoped. But Esc did not say a thing, not one word.

~*~

Mrc lay on a hill and stared at the sky. He was so sad. There were tears in his eyes, but they did not fall. Ducks flew past, and far off he could hear the stream that he liked to go swim in, when the sun was warm and Esc said he would like a fish to eat. He felt lost. Esc was the smart one, the one who knew what to do. Mrc was good at … well, he could hunt. And rut. And cook. That was all.

Not much.

Then he sat up. Years and years back, he had seen a cave once, a big cave and very tall, and in it there had been … yes, that was good. A good plan and smart, like Esc was smart. That might work!

He stood up. He had work to do.

Mrc found rocks, and ash, and bark, and shells. He found clay and sand and plants. He founds bugs that turned bright red when he squished them. When he had found all these things, he sat and laid them all out on the ground. They looked good. This was good. Esc would like it.

He began to grind. Grind grind grind. He mixed and stirred. He spat, lots of spit. _Ptoo ptoo_. When he was done, he walked back to the cave. Esc was still there, on his side. Mrc shrugged. He had much work to do.

It took a long time, a very long time.

~*~

Mrc shook Esc on the arm. “Esc! Esc! Quick—get up! There is a mammoth in the cave. He will step on us if we are not fast.”

Esc sighed. He did not move. “No, Mrc. There is no mammoth. There was no mammoth last time, and there is none this time.”

“Ha, Esc, you are wrong!” Mrc said, a bit too loud. “There is a mammoth, right here next to you. Come and take a look at him.”

But Esc just shut his eyes, so Mrc went and sat down next to him. “Esc, you must look. I mean it. You will see him, when you look. Do it!”

He shook Esc more, and so Esc made a noise, a mad noise, and took a quick peek. “There, Mrc. I looked, and I did not see a—mammoth! Run, Mrc!” Esc sat up fast, as fast as he had moved in days. “Ai! It is right next to me!”

Mrc laughed. He was so glad he could not stop it. “I told you so! And it is big, _very_ big, and I put it there just for you.”

“But … it is not … how did you make the mammoth go on the wall?”

“Ash, and clay, and bugs, and spit, and plants. And I ground them all up in a shell, like you ground the bones on the string you gave to me, and then when you had your eyes closed I put them up. Do you like them?”

But Esc did not hear him. Esc had stood, and had fixed his eyes on the paint that Mrc had made, and the shapes he had made with the paint. He raised his hand to the mammoth and touched it. Then he took his hand back, and looked at the red clay that was now on his palm. He looked back to the wall again, to two small men who sat on a hill.

“Is that us?” he asked.

“Yes, that is us, when we go and look at the stars and give names to the shapes they make.”

“And there we are on a hunt, and I have a club and you have a spear, and we are trying to catch a cow. And there are the ducks you shoot with your sling, and one is dead, and there is Cat and she is trying to eat the bugs with the blue wings, and now the small mammoths have caught you … ”

Esc dropped his arm back down. He looked sad and worn. Mrc squeezed his hand.

“I made them for you, Esc. So if you want to lie on the dirt all day long, at least you can look at the things that you used to do. That you like to do.” He took a deep breath. “That you and I like to do.”

“Oh Mrc,” Esc said. His eyes got wet and soft. “Mrc, this is so nice. I can see them all, and there I am, and there you are. You and me. I will look at them all the time.” He lay back down on the ground, but he did not seem as sad as he once did.

“Do you like them, Esc? Will they make you glad?”

Esc smiled for the first time in days. “Yes, Mrc. They will. They do. Now I am glad. Thank you.”

 


End file.
